Tactical Long Guns: AR15 Review and Other Rifles

Del-ton

Del-Ton (del-ton.com) continues to be my favorite AR-15 manufacturers for a variety of reasons. The fact that it is a family run husband/wife-well operation that produces a high quality properly made weapon, in a wide variety of configurations, in a price range affordable for average guys makes it hard to beat. In fact, DEL-TON rifles are the lowest priced, American made rifles around, and always my first recommendation to my police academy cadets when they seek information about their first AR-15 purchase.

The TRX also features a reinforced fiber adjustable Troy™ Battle Ax (troyind.com) butt stock and a Troy 13” TRX Extreme forend. Weight is 6.8 lbs. empty and has a fully extended length of 36.75” and a collapsed length of 33”. The sights are Troy DOA/STD Rear folding and Troy M4/HK Front folding. The TRX has an HPT/MPI tested bolt.

The forend is great. It is compact and easily usable without a vertical foregrip because it isn’t festooned with railing. You select where you are going to put the rail segments-very nice touch. I also like the feel of the Troy Battle Axe butt stock. I tested a TRX-16 with carbine length gas port earlier in the year for another project.

All the Troy accessories on my sample gun were flat dark earth, with the upper and lower receiver left in black. Very sharp! It was a great trouble free shooter up to any task than could be expected of it! If you want an excellent M4 type weapon that is ready to go right out of the box, look no farther. The sights are so good that they aren’t just for backup- they can stand alone unless and until you want to add an optic. And while you’re looking, make sure you check Del-Ton’s complete AR15 line on their online catalogue. If you don’t see it, they can probably build it. MSRP for the Del-Ton TRX16 rifle is $1250 and comes with a hard case, 30-round Troy magazine and a cleaning kit.

About Scott Wagner

Scott Wagner is a 32-year law enforcement veteran. Currently a police sergeant in Baltimore, Ohio, he spent 20 years with the Union County Ohio Sheriff's Office as a Reserve Deputy where he worked patrol, training and SWAT, and was the assistant SWAT team leader and a team sniper. Wagner has been a state-certified police firearms, fitness and defensive tactics instructor for 26 years, and has been a criminal justice professor and police academy commander for 20 years at a community college in the Midwest.
He is the author of the Gun Digest books, "Tactical Shotguns,", "Own the Night—A Guide to Tactical Lights and Laser Sights," and Survival Guns.